And so it begins....

This morning I woke up WAAAAAYYYYY too early to find Buddy hard at work doing this.....

That's him tacking up a pillow case full of knick knacks set to explode on Shane's head when he walked out of the bedroom (compliments of Goodboy of course)! Buddy decided Goodboy probably needed a little dose of religion after that and took him to church with us....

Or, Buddy decided he wanted a good distraction at church and took him to church with us(I'll go with option #2), although we can hold our breath that Goodboy's pranks are going to get nicer over the next little bit! So all in all a super fantastic, totally over it, day!

My 6,985,098,847th parenting mistake....

Buddy played his last soccer game of the season this afternoon, and we are a little bit exhausted! When we got home our house turned into an airplane hanger....

I'm pretty sure Buddy has made over 500 airplanes over the last 2 days. I'm also pretty sure Buddy is a hoarder and has only let me throw away 2 of the aforementioned airplanes! In other news, somehow the topic of Christmas came up, which led to talking about Santa and Goodboy the elf! Buddy told me he was 100% certain that they weren't real. For an hour he searched the house for Goodboy to prove to me that I was the one behind it all. Finally I confessed. Remember what happened with the tooth fairy? Let me refresh your memory (click on the word memory dad, it'll take you to the link). Well, you would think that I would have learned my lesson last time. Shane was sure to rub salt in my wounds on that one. But seriously, he's 9, I thought he really knew and he was just looking for validation. He told me he was really sad to be losing Goodboy. Good thing I put on my rebound parenting pants, because the family is now taking turns of pulling Goodboy pranks on the rest of the family! Guess who wanted to take the first turn....

I'm slightly afraid...

So all in all a super  (I'd like to say fantastic, but based on the tears shed today I'll defer that), growing day!

The Big Top...

I have very fond memories of my dad taking me to the circus every year when I was a kid, so of course when I saw a circus was finally headed our way, I just had to by tickets! In my 41 years of attending a circus, this is the first time I've actually been in a tent to see one....

Added bonus, our seats were this close (that'd be THE VERY FRONT ROW)....

Extra bonuses, our neighbors that we love to hang out with happened to be sitting right behind us, and the announcer guy got so close to me I actually got spit on a few times (wait, were the bonuses supposed to be good or bad, because that last one is a little iffy?)! Buddy was astounded and amazed....especially by these two guys that are 10 and 11 and did some awesome acrobatic tricks....

Buddy went up to them to tell them they did a good job and gave them a thumbs up, which kind of makes me giggle (not sure why, maybe because I'm tired, or maybe I equate it with telling someone like Brad Pitt he's a good actor and giving him a thumbs up, but then again maybe Brad would appreciate that?!).  Also, there was this....

Which reminds me, I had a parent-teacher conference with his teacher this afternoon. Turns out he thinks Buddy is smart, weird and funny....who knew he was smart? Just kidding!!!!! So all in all a super fantastic, joining the circus, day! 

Obscurely famous....

Today I decided to complete my ensemble and eat lunch with my father....or is it my son, no it's my father, wait, I'm just getting confused...

In my eyes, I was clearly Princess Leia, but apparently no one on the islands has seen Star Wars because at least 10 people asked me who I was supposed to be (even when Darth Vader was standing by my side)! Hmmmm, oh well, we'll work on geeking up the islanders. In other news, trick-or-treating was a huge success with our Tie Fighter. I would love to show you pictures of our awesomeness, but I was too busy being awesome. But I'm assuming from the ridiculous amounts of strangers snapping pictures of us we'll be famous in no time! More importantly though, Buddy came out with a haul....

I think he might not have been the only one!

But seriously, I wish I had some pictures of him and the Tie Fighter! It had glow sticks on the trim! Trust me, glow sticks make everything more awesome, plus it worked out well for a little cocoon when Shane couldn't handle being cold anymore (yes, theoretically the temperature wasn't cold, but we're used to being hot). Then it made for a smoother transition to ending the trick-or-treating when ALL THE HOUSES hadn't been visited and it was close to bedtime! Shove three kids in a space ship and end up at home, voila! It was magical. So all in all a super fantastic, waiting to be famous, day!

If only.....

 Buddy decided to help me out with my workout tonight......

If only that would actually help! In other news, it's my brother Chuck's birthday today. In his honor, we set off a few of these....

Chuck still lives on the East Coast so Buddy has only met his Uncle Chuck a few times, but let me assure you, Chuck is a living legend around these parts for all the havoc he wreaked in his childhood! I'm hoping Buddy follows enough in his footsteps to have fun, but enough out of them to avoid the frequent school suspensions for the multiple pranks gone wrong! Happy birthday Chuck, we are giving you a Beeder family underarm binging salute (if you don't understand that statement, it's because you weren't raised in the land of awesome  compliments of a certain older brother named Chuck)! So all in all a super fantastic, living in the footsteps, day!

Birthday Boy....

I had a lunch date with a certain little someone who turned 9 today! After lunch, I got to go to his class and  do some science experiments to wow and amaze his classmates (not sure they were wowed or amazed, but at least they got to go outside, and some of the really lucky kids got hit by stray soda from a mentos explosion gone oh so wrong). After school I took Buddy and some of his friends to the 4D theater and then he had a melt down while doing his homework. In his defense, I think homework on your birthday should totally be outlawed (but that way of thinking is probably a really good reason that I am not a teacher).  Shane had a work meeting tonight at one of the resorts, so, like the good family we are, we totally mooched off a free pass to play in the resort pool! Awesome!!!!! We're a good family like that! In other news, I got an email with these little gems attached (talk about great timing with that first picture)...

I am so proud to be that little buckethead's mother! So all in all a super fantastic, love my boy, day!

Mustache Bash....

Buddy had his birthday party today, he decided he should dress in style for the occasion....

One of these days I'll introduce him to something called a white shirt, because he apparently doesn't realize they actually go under coats, but whatever, he was rocking it! Buddy had wanted a mustache themed party so we went all out.....well, if you call giving all the team members nicknames of mustaches, then we totally went all out....

First we played a game of "mustache dash", each kid had to wear a mustached clothespin on their right shoulder and try to steal everyone else's away. Errrrrm, in case you were wondering, being the first out at your own party is kind of a downer....but on the upside, he makes a really cute Snot Mop!

Next we played a game of "elephant smash and bash" (at least bash went along with the theme)....

Then we played a little round of "sticky stache", the kids really got into this one!

Is it just me, or does looking at these pictures make you realize the power of being an adult? Really? Please come to my party and smear sticky junk on your face and then shove your face into some cotton so not only will you be sticky, but you'll be annoyingly sticky....trust me, it'll be fun!

Since their faces were already a mess, I decided that I should probably get their hands messy too, just to complete the ensemble.....thus a game of "find the stache" (aka hidden rings inside of a cake topped with an entire can of whipped cream....also known as awesome!)

Since the kids were needing a bath by this point, we played a game of "splash the stache", unfortunately I think my professional cameraman (Shane) decided to take a break at this point, so no pictures to document it. Just picture huge shaving cream mustaches getting hit by sponges thrown by exuberant children! Then we did a little "mustache catch" which was more of a catching a water balloon in a bucket marked with a mustache (I mean we have a theme for a reason, right?)

Well, then you know what happens after the water balloons get busted out, right?

Buddy's teacher even made an appearance (when I was in 3rd grade I was convinced that teachers lived at school and never left, much less made an appearance at a party). The kids were more than excited.....to pummel him with sponges soaked in shaving cream.....

After the cake, the straggler party goers decided they should join the dark side for a while....

No worries, they returned to the force pretty quickly and actually cleaned up all the shaving cream and cake smearings left in my cul de sac without me even asking. I do believe the force is strong in the young ones! So all in all a super fantastic, totally bashed, day!